Strange PR on expired domains

cache says msn.com and google.com

[cbpayne]

I have just come across something I really can not explain.

A domain (expired in Feb) - get "The page cannot be displayed" message - the domain used to belong to a small local business which all SE's show a couple of backlinks, but Google have given the domain a PR9 with >150 000 backlinks. The Google cache brings up msn.com (the orginal site is in no way related to msn, according to whois data)

The other domain (not expired) - get the "The page cannot be displayed" message and has only one backlink on all other SE's but Google are showing 15500 backlinks and have given it a PR10 (on the toolbar) - check the cache and its google.com! The domain name is not even close to anything Google - (some whois data is missing)...

Anyone got any idea what might be going on here?

[atlrus]

That is odd. I have expeienced something similar - a domain name which I own and it's pointed to one of my website for generating traffic is showing on Google with a page title of some online casino ( not related at all )...

[Dolemite]

My guess is that its ranking one of those MSN error pages, even though you may not be seeing it.

[cabbie]

One site was directed to msn so google gives it msn pr.The other to google so it gets a pr10.
They wont rank for anything.

[Artecona]

We had a domain that was showing Yahoo's PR and backlinks a few months ago. Lasted for one update and then went back to normal.

[cbpayne]

The two domains I mentioned don't rank for anything despite the PR9 and PR10

They came to my attention via an expired domain name reseller.

Somehow that reseller is manipulating something ...

I wonder if Google know about this? , esp if it being done for more subtle PR manipulation to get a better price to sell an expired domain (despite the expired domain penalty).

[jocelynd]

Chances are the PR and BL are already corrected.
Just the visual PR and backlinks aren't.

[humpo]

I have seen this mentioned on another forum.

The guy has two domains which he has done some trickery with the DNS settings, its more than a redirect.

The one domain is somehow pointing to google, but not redirecting there(if that makes sense) So when you enter the domain in the address bar you go to a “page not found” page, you can see the ToolBar PR is 10, then when you hit the backlinks button you see 1000’s of backlinks, but wait, its showing the backlinks for google! Yet you can see the backlinks search is links:www.dodgydomain.com

Amusing!

[g1smd]

"Wanna buy a PR9 domain, mate? One careful owner. Nice little runner."

It's a scam.

[cbpayne]

>It's a scam.

Sure is - I am just trying to work out how they did it.

Even though its a scam and hopefully no one would be silly enough to be taken in by a PR9 or 10, but what if they are doing it to get some old PR1-2 domains, up to a 4 or 5 (more subtle) and try to sell those for inflated prices to those who are naive .... (despite the Google expired domain penalty).

[Powdork]

Or more likely, "wanna buy a link from a pr 9 page?"

[SevanB2]

I have also seen this before. It's a 301 redirect going from expired domain to a domain with high PR. When you put 301 redirect, Google threats both sites as the same and shows the same PR for both and also same back links. However, once you actually buy the domain and put content on it, you will loose the back links and the PR.

I had PR9 expired domain like this once and had no clue what was going on at the time, but wanted to get rid of it fast, cause I had a feeling it would loose PR. I almost sold it but the buyer end up not paying and the next day PR went down to zero.

[atlrus]

So far I have not had evidence that Google penalize expired domains.

In Feb. I bought about 100 expired domains, all with PR 4. In March, after the Google shift, some of them went to PR 3, 2, and 0, a few got PR 5 but most of them (about 65-70) are PR 4.

And all of those domains hosted the exact same one-page website, which has nothing in common with those previously hosted on the domains.

I had a URL of a site that showed you how a web site used to look like before, but I cannot find it - let me look around - If i find it I will post it and you could go and check to see how that domain looked like before...gimme a sec...

[atlrus]

there it is:

[archive.org...]

that should do.

[vincevincevince]

maybe it is cloaking the redirect?

[Larryhat]

Hello: Hope this is on the thread:

I have a specialized niche with a single 3-letter
search word. I rank about 20 out of 4 million.
Another site pushes me down a knotch half the time.

I wouldn't mind, but that site was set up by a good group that disbanded years ago. Their domain name
lapsed and was snatched by pirates in Hong Kong,
presumably for ransom.

The defunct pages are parked at some Web****
type 'domain park' with absolutely zero relevant
content .. again this is way old news.

Google still gives them high PR, presumably due
to age and the long mummified incoming links.

This isn't rocket science. Parked pages have
NO relevance to the honest browser. G could
easily detect and derate parked domains. WHO can
I complain to at Google? Would it do any good?

Thanks for any suggestions. -Larry